The Secrets of Jewish Majorca
The Half Day Experience
4-hour Walk & Talk Experience
(can be done as 2 hours walking and 2 hours biking with extra cost for the bike rentals)
Hear the stones whisper hundred of years of history
Our cultural walk and talk experience starts in the old town in the Jewish Quarter Interpretation Center on Carrer del Almudaina, which is next to the entry point to the old Jewish Quarter, which dates back to the Muslim era of Mallorca, the Call Major.
The term “Call” is in Catalan and means the same thing as “Juderia” in Castellano.
Whenever you visit Jewish Quarters in and around Catalan-speaking regions of Spain such as the Balearics, Valencia, and Barcelona you may see the signs “Carrer de Call” or “Street of the Jewish Quarter.”
Quick details
- Group size: From 1 person to 12 people
- Duration: 4 hours
- Transport: Walking or biking (your choice)
- Accessibility: Cobblestone streets, easy walking with areas to sit during the tour
- Age: Suitable for ages 8 and up
- Cost: Dependant on size of group and if we need to rent bikes for your group
Learn about the Inquisition, forced conversions, and the emergence of the ‘Crypto-Jews
This visit includes all of the sites of the highlights tour as well as additional locations connected to Jewish heritage in Palma. You will learn about the Inquisition, forced conversions, and the emergence of the ‘Crypto-Jews’ who publicly professed Catholicism while privately adhering to Judaism. Synagogues were secretly built in private homes. We will also visit the specific streets where the Xueta families have lived for centuries until as recently as the 1960s. The Xuetas are the Catholic descendants of the Jewish Conversos and are made up of 15 family names. Signs of this at-one-point marginalized community can still be found today with many of the current jewelry shops having been kept within their families for generations beforehand. Even the famous Mallorquin pastry, the “ensaimada” is specifically cooked with pork fat as a reaction to the centuries-old prejudice and discrimination.
You will also learn about the tragic events of 1691 when a group of Crypto-Jews tried to escape on the ship of an English captain but a storm prevented their departure. Subsequent torture and imprisonment within the Inquisition’s Black House, now the site of the town’s Plaza Major, took place until their execution in Plaza Gomila, underneath the city’s Bellver Castle. Three out of the forty victims chose to not give up their Judaism and were subsequently burned alive. In 2018, the city renamed a street after one of these martyrs – Caterina Tarongi – as well as putting a small but poignant memorial in the same Plaza Gomila location. (Note: Our six-hour walk and driving experience includes a visit to this memorial.)
Tour highlights
- All sites on the Highlights Tour
- Jewish History Center with Permanent Exhibit
- Secret tunnel in a Ceramic Workshop
- Medieval oven inside an active bakery
- Stopelsteins (memorial plaques) from the Spanish Civil War
- Plaza Mayor (site of the Black House the Inquisition headquarters)
- Plaza with 18 orange trees donated by the local Jewish community
- Option to add a visit to the Cathedral to see the Rimmonim (15th century Torah Scroll ornaments)
Join us on this cultural walking tour
Book this private 4-hour walking (or biking) tour and learn about this unique history that has been kept dormant for centuries.
Contact us if you want to make a booking within the next seven days.
What to expect on our tours
Notable landmarks, scenery, and unique experiences you’ll encounter on our walking tours
What our customers say
Join us on this cultural walking tour
Book this private 4-hour walking (or biking) tour and learn about this unique history that has been kept dormant for centuries.
Contact us if you want to make a booking within the next seven days.